There is a surprisingly unskeptical review in eSkeptic of Lawrence Krauss’s A Universe from Nothing. As an atheist I applaud Krauss’s intent to address attempts to prove the existence of a God by the “well, where did the Universe come from, … Continue reading →

The article “Freezing Time” published in The Scientist describes the development of extremely powerful enzyme inhibitors. Because of their vastly higher affinity for the enzyme, they can not only be used in much smaller doses for medical purposes, but persist for … Continue reading →

Continuing the grand tradition begun by the behaviourists of attempting to use the science of the mind to banish free will is Sam Harris’ opinion piece Free will is an illusion – and must be exposed (he also develops this theme … Continue reading →

Life extension by using stem cells or cybernetics to fix or replace organs is all very well, but it doesn’t help us if our brain decays. Our memory of who we are and the processes that result in our consciousness … Continue reading →

At school we learn about the epochs of geological time where for whatever reason, the character of the Earth changes: the Cambrian, the Jurassic, the Pleistocene etc. Some scientists are now saying that we have entered a new epoch, the … Continue reading →

Two recent advances have brought life extension closer to reality. First, on the cloning front, scientists have finally succeeded in generating viable human embryonic stem cells from cloned cells (nuclear transfer). There is a way to go yet as the … Continue reading →

Good news on the stem cell front, a US judge has finally ruled that federal funding for research with human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is legal. Two scientists, of all people, had sued on the grounds that funding the research … Continue reading →

Well, it’s just a tooth, but a tooth is actually a complex organ and it is an exciting first for scientists to have implanted a tooth made from stem cells into a mouse, where it integrated, survived and functioned pretty … Continue reading →